Given at the Utah State Capitol

Governor Michael O. Leavitt

Lady Thatcher, Sir Denis and friends,

It is an honor and privilege to have Lady Margaret Thatcher in our great state of Utah. Her visit this week has had a profound, personal impact. All week long, our community has been alive with an important discussion. Yes, there has been talk of international political events and personalities, as one might expect from the visit of one of the world's most powerful leaders. But discussion has centered around deeper, lasting issues of principles and values. Victorian virtues, to use the words of Lady Margaret Thatcher.

During the past week I reviewed material from my 1992 campaign. I told a story during that effort that expressed something I felt deeply. It told of a conversation I had with my grandfather. It concerned a farmer down the road from his farm. The man clearly had more land that he could afford and always drove a new John Deere tractor. I said, "Grandpa, how can he do that?" He said, "Mike, if we stick with what's real and right, we'll be farming long after he's be repossessed." He was right, a few years later, the farmer down the road's fancy John Deere tractor was gone, and we were still farming.

This morning I read news account of the economic prosperity that the people of American have developed the past 50 years. As a nation we have achieved unprecedented wealth and personal freedom. We have better health care, we're better educated, work at less exhausting employment, communicate and move about more freely and live longer that ever. Despite our prosperity, surveys say there is less optimism, more fear about the future, and far less confidence in government. Why?

My service the last three years has deepened and broadened my appreciation for my grand dad's advice. I've concluded that he wasn't just talking about spending more money than you have, he was talking about something far more fundamental. He was talking about a basic set of behaviors that are ageless, a set of standards that will not just produce prosperity but are also the foundation of confidence and satisfaction.

Mrs. Thatcher didn't know my grandfather, (though she would have liked him) but Saturday night, I heard her say something to the effect that the challenge of politics is to apply unchanging values to changing problems. Her reference was to the same moral and social underpinning. There is something quite significant to me about a wise farmer in rural Utah and a renown world leader instinctively knowing the same thing. They both understood that any person or nation can be slowly consumed by the burden of those who abuse the power of human creation, mistreat children or spouse, fail in their promises, break the law or find themselves content to live from the sweat of another's brow. These can behaviors destroy an individual or nation culturally, spiritually, economically and ultimately threaten physical security.

But there is good news in this realization. It means that the power to create prosperity, optimism and general well being is within the immediate grasp of any nation. But the most important conclusion is that we don't have to count on government to get it. In fact the opposite is true. The foundation of prosperity is goodness in people, not government.

This luncheon is to honor Lady Thatcher for her devotion and example in espousing these virtues on an international basis. Her prominence and fame come from being the most powerful woman in the world, yet Lady Thatcher's power emanates from a far greater source than politics. Her power grows from her unwavering principles; the integrity, hard work, compassion and caring that have been the anchors of all her actions. These unwavering principles are the source of her power.

It is also to thank each of the members of the Governors Centennial Commission on Values for their work and some very good friends for their devotion to us. When we formed the Centennial Values Commission last year, I stated my firm belief that the foundation of prosperity is goodness, not government. Government cannot legislate goodness but we can nurture it. Government cannot appropriate goodness, but we can teach it. We cannot compel it, but we can practice it, exemplify it and we must stand for it.

We would now be pleased Lady Thatcher to hear a response from you.